Weapon of Mass Entertainment – Interview with War Rock’s Matt Norton

As the holiday season nears, K2 Network’s tactical online first person shooter, War Rock, is hoping to put its crosshairs on the hard drives of gamers’ PCs around the world. That’s not quite filling the role of good ol’ Saint Nick, but close enough. MPOGD.com speaks with Matt Norton, Producer for War Rock about what he feels makes this game one to watch for the near future.

Q: Thank you for your time, Matt, in answering MPOGD’s questions about War Rock. Share with us about your work at K2 Network and how you became involved with War Rock.

A: K2 Network is a company that sees online gaming as a service industry rather than a business centered around putting a box on a shelf. Service companies that survive and prosper are ones that put the consumer first and essentially do the right thing for their users on a consistent basis. That’s the genesis of K2 Network’s “Gamers First” mantra.

Being involved with a company that values doing the right thing, which isn’t always the expedient thing, above all else is a pleasure. That drive extends to the internal workings of the company as well as the games that we bring to our players. Working on a top product with great people was the opportunity that brought me to K2 almost a year ago, and I’m still enjoying the team and the work here.

Part of running a service is that the product really belongs to the customer (the player) more than it does to us. So, one of the most exciting things here is being able to see where War Rock’s players take this game.

Q: Who would find themselves more quickly at home in War Rock - an MMO veteran or a first-person shooter gamer? And, why?

A: FPS players all the way. War Rock is first and foremost a FPS game. The characters are persistent and War Rock does have persistent elements, but the game-world is not persistent.yet.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about Beta 4, your latest addition to War Rock, and what new additions it brings to the game and what beta community issues it solves?

A: In Beta 4 we added another Close Quarters Battle Map (Khyber) as well as an air-combat map (Conturas). We added several new hand-held weapons. The most interesting thing that we added though was the start of our first tournament series.

The Free-For-All Tournaments are a different kind of gameplay in that they’re everyone-against-everyone deathmatches rather than team-based gameplay. The tournaments have prizes sponsored by ATi so players have some really nice loot as an incentive to play.

Q: How large has your beta community become, since its start? How many of these players are from the United States, compared to South Korea? What steps, if any, are you taking to ensure War Rock has a distinctively Western appeal as beta development progresses?

A: We have over 400,000 registered players in our game right now (players who have actually played the game). About 40% or so are from the United States, the majority of the rest are from the European Union and a few other countries like Brazil, Israel, and Argentina.

We don’t have any Korean players in the game at this time since War Rock is already being run commercially in South Korea and we do not hold that license. Just as an FYI though, there are over 3.5 Million registered War Rock players in Korea at this time.

There are probably more similarities than differences in what folks in different areas expect from a good shooter. However, we have noticed some differences. For example:

Sound – Really good sound isn’t as important to Korean players (probably because they play in crowded and noisy cyber-cafes rather than alone in a room with good speakers). So, we’re in the process of upgrading the sound-engine in the game and redoing all of the in-game sound effects to sound much better on higher-end speakers and sound-cards.

Map Size – Korean players enjoy close-in combat where you start with your hands at your enemy’s throat. While Western players do enjoy this, we’ve found that they also enjoy some of the larger maps where you can jump into a variety of vehicles and plan your attack a bit more before engaging the enemy.

Controls – The ability to remap your control keys and to use a joystick to fly with are much more important to Western players, again, probably a factor of playing consistently on your own machine rather than a rented one.

Those are a few of the issues and there are a lot more on the subtle side, having to do with weapon balancing and the like.

Many of the changes we’ve made have been driven by player feedback and comments (through our forums, focus-groups, and interactions with our live in-game GM staff). So, the players of the game here in the West are the ones calling the shots on what they find to be the most important issues.

Q: Was sim-like accuracy or arcade-style pure and simple fun the objective of War Rock? Have you had any military professionals help with the creation of the game?

A: We’ve made a consistent and sustained effort to focus on the fun-factor rather than realism for realism’s sake. There are several really good sim-games out there and they certainly fill a niche. But our emphasis is on getting into the game and having fun fragging people quickly and as effortlessly as possible. An all-day session of sniper-stalking is highly realistic.

We haven’t called in specific military advisors for War Rock yet, but the development team is comprised of both military veterans as well as FPS veterans, so we have a lot of experience to draw upon.

Q: Online games like Kuma War have incorporated simulated real-world combat scenarios into their game play. Do you plan to do the same, or keep scenarios (missions, for example) more fantasy-based?

A: War Rock will definitely have scenarios inspired by real-world events at some point in the near future. However, the art of war in real-life often involves a move to battle only when one side has an overwhelming advantage. While this is realistic, it’s not necessarily fun. Good gameplay, on the other hand, comes from a more balanced and fun setting.

War Rock’s goal is to feel real, but always to put the fun factor first and foremost.

Q: Will role-players seeking a less combat-focused experience find a home in War Rock, or is the game best suited to classic PvP’ers?

A: War Rock is a true-blue FPS game, so that means that PvP is the heart of the game. That said, the Engineer and Medic characters are great choices for someone that wants to help their team succeed. You earn experience and Dinar (War Rock’s in-game money) for assisting your team-members as well as for fragging foes and capping flags. The Heavy Weapons Trooper is also a great way to support your team by taking out incoming armor and air-vehicles. So there are a lot of fun roles for folks that don’t want to go toe-to-toe with the enemy.

Q: Aside from armored personnel carriers and other land-based vehicles are the de facto standards for most modern war/combat games, what are your plans for aircraft and sea-going vehicles in War Rock?

A: We currently have over half-a-dozen jets in the game from (air-superiority fighters, ground attack, fighter bombers) and 4 helicopters. This number will double within the next few months.

We also have a couple of fast-attack boats in the game and a couple of amphibious vehicles to add some variety to our island-based maps.

There are plans to add more seagoing craft (transport hovercraft, submarines, etc.). But these will be added post-release.

Q: Are hardware physics capabilities being considered for inclusion in War Rock?

A: One of the huge benefits of War Rock’s engine is that it’s able to run on extremely low-end machines and to do so with complete competitiveness. The minimum-spec machine for a War Rock is only a P3 800. The game doesn’t look quite as good with a low-end machine, but it’s still quite playable with a good frame-rate.

At this time we don’t see a compelling reason to change the physics so that they’d need more processing power, either on the CPU or on a separate physics processor.

Q: Are weather effects implemented, and if so, do they have any practical effects? Likewise, aside from the usual advantages of terrain, will sand, mud, etc., have any effect on movement?

A: We are working on both weather and terrain effects but our focus has been more on weapon balancing and core-game play enhancements than on these features. That said, some of our upcoming maps will have very challenging terrain with snow, so traction will be a part of the challenge set.

Q: Latency and lag are monsters for even “AAA” title networked combat/war games, but it’s been mentioned on forums for War Rock more frequently than many games. Is this issue more a matter of hardware, connection speed, or game development and optimization issues for these players?

A: Lag is always an issue with FPS games and we’ve certainly had to overcome our share of latency issues. We’ve taken a number of steps to change the way the game operates so as to minimize lag. We’ve also give the players a lot more control over their own lag situation in the games that they set up.

The essential issue for us is that parts of War Rock’s gameplay are peer-to-peer, which means that if one player lags in the game, they create a bad play experience not only for themselves, but also everyone in the room with them.

In a real sense we’ve been victims of our own success in that we have players from all over the world joining the War Rock community. The downside of this is that, for example, when you have a game being played on our US-West Coast servers and someone from Singapore joins the game, it lags out everyone in that room.

To combat this, we’ve 1) allowed players to set their own lag-tolerance for anyone joining their game (i.e. <100ms, <199ms, or all), 2) allowed players to vote-kick anyone that’s started lagging, 3) auto-kick anyone that’s lagging consistently (over a 2-minute average), and 4) auto-kick players that are losing too many packets (again over a 2-minute average).

We also now have a white-list of allowed countries that fall within our service area, so it will be harder for someone that’s too far away from our servers to join a game and lag everyone out.

That said, we love the fact that War Rock is so popular with the international community and are working to expand our service area and to add more server clusters.

Q: While “Free2Play”, War Rock is planning offer premium benefits to paid users. Do you plan to offer registration plans or item-based premiums?

A: During gameplay the players will earn both Experience, which allows them to level up and gain access to better gear, and Dinar (War Rock’s in-game money). Additional weapons and other gear can be purchased by the players using Dinar.

We’ll be offering packages of additional Dinar to the players so they can purchase more gear than they might be able to by virtue of their in-game earnings alone. One thing to keep in mind is that access to advanced weaponry and other gear is still limited by character level. Much as in real-life, more experienced troopers are granted access to more advanced and specialized weaponry. So, no matter how much money you put into the game, you can never buy your way to the top.

We’ll have three packages of Dinar; Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The idea being that the more Dinar you purchase at one time, the more Dinar you get for your money. In addition to giving you more Dinar to spend on weapons, equipment, and character customization, Premium players gain access to other privileges.

Premium accounts have first access to new maps, and are able to start games with any of the maps as soon as they come out. They can also change the parameters of any game they start, shorter time, more or less kills, password protected, etc. Games using the very newest maps (within the first 30-days of release) will only be able to be started by Premium members. Non-premium members will still be able to join a Premium game, but they can only start a game with default values and only if the map has been available for 31 days or more.

Most tournaments and special events will be open to all players but there will be some events and tournaments that are designed specifically for Premium players.

Other benefits for Premium membership include integrated voice-chat and advanced stat and clan services.

Free2PlayT almost begs the question, “What’s the catch?” But the truth is that there isn’t one. Our feeling is that we have a great FPS here, one with a unique opportunity to expand through player-driven ideas. We believe that if you like the game as much as we think you will, and end up playing 10, 20, or 30-hours per week that we can offer things that will make sense for you to buy.

But you’re never coerced into paying us anything and a player could play for free forever while rising to the very highest ranks.

Q: What features do you feel may be left on the cutting room floor by the time you reach commercialization? Do you expect those particular features, if any, to be reintroduced into the game after that?

A: One of the best features of War Rock is that we have a schedule for monthly (and sometimes more frequent) releases. That means that good features, as defined by our players, will go into the game in order of priority.

I’ve worked on a lot of good games (and a few not so good ones ;), and one of the most frustrating things as part of the production team is that at some point you have to cut-off any new ideas, no matter how good they are, so you can burn the game to disk and put it in a box.

War Rock doesn’t have that restriction. We take our ideas and priorities from the player community and features (game modes, maps, weapons, vehicles, etc.) go into the game with our monthly content updates.

So, nothing needs to get left on the cutting room floor.

The game belongs to the players not to us, so seeing what the players want to turn War Rock into is one of the most exciting parts of being part of the War Rock team.

Q: Before we let you go, perhaps you could share one of your own memorable in-game combat stories from War Rock with us?

A: The team gets into the game to play fairly frequently, sometimes with K2-prefaced aliases, sometimes not. Sometimes we’ll just observe the players to see how something gets used or to see if something’s properly balanced, but other times we’ll be playing for fun.

A few of the players have started taking screenshots whenever they kill one of the dev team and then they use the pic for their signature on the War Rock forums. It’s like bragging rights. It’s all in good fun, but it’s still pretty funny. We laugh when we see kill-shots of each other in the forums.

It’s all about the bragging rights, Matt. Thanks for giving us a snapshot inside War Rock!